Critical security studies and alternative dialogues for peace: Reconstructing ‘language barriers’ and ‘talking points’

Abstract

On paper, it is easy to assume that critical peace studies and critical security studies share the same lexicon. Evidently, each discipline adopts various modes of immanent critique to expose and alleviate insecurities in different environments. They are equally similar insofar as their core concepts, peace and security, are easily recognizable and commonly deployed within academic and everyday grammars. Added to all of the above, these two words can be, and often are, used interchangeably. These interweavings are particularly visible in the United Nations’ thematic heading and the professed mission statements of its institutional arms.